36 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE. 



Chicago is situated on a vast plain extending in every 

 direction for many miles beyond the city limits. 



Probably no city ever had such an opportunity as hers 

 to secure every possible advantage which the situation 

 admits, by the exercise of judicious forethought in the 

 preparation of a design adapted to the necessities which 

 were certain to arise. Other cities have grown up by 

 gradual accretion in a long series of years, but Chicago 

 has grown from a mere village to an immense city in the 

 course of a single generation, and many of her active and 

 energetic citizens of to-day have shot wild game where 

 now are located some of her busiest thoroughfares. Her 

 founders were always sanguine of her future destiny, and 

 from an early day declared their conviction that she 

 would become one of leading commercial cities of- the 

 country. They had the history and example of all the 

 cities of all the world to teach them the necessities, and 

 warn them of the dangers which must arise, and which 

 could never be rectified if not foreseen and provided for 

 in the original design. The site was a dead level, offer- 

 ing no natural features to affect the design, except the 

 lake and the river, the former comprising the only object 

 worthy of consideration for esthetic effect, while the latter 

 furnished a secure harbor for lake craft, and must of 

 course always be intimately connected with the business 

 interests of the city. 



No evidence of special reference to these features 

 appears in the original plan, and the only important pro- 

 vision which indicates the faith of the founders in the 

 future greatness of the city, is in the breadth of the 



